At the Edge of All Things

The Consilium

There are four Councilors and one Hierarch; each must represent one of the five Watchtowers, and by tradition each represents a different point of the Pentacle as well, although this is not law.

Councilors are elected to three-year terms by a vote held by members of their Path, with each mage receiving a number of votes based on their demonstrated power in that Path’s two Ruling Arcana. The Hierarch may call for new elections at any time, but this places every seat up for grabs – he may not target specific enemies this way.

If a Councilor dies or is removed from office, the Hierarch is empowered to appoint a replacement of the same Path to serve out their term. The one exception is if the Councilor was bested in the Duel Arcane with the seat as stakes.

The Hierarch is elected from among the ranks of Councilors by a Consilium-wide vote. The voting schema is similar to the one outlined above, but the number of votes is based only on the mage’s single most advanced Arcanum, with Masters receiving an additional number of votes for each Adept Arcanum. Hierarchs serve for three-year terms, although a new election may be called by a 3/4 vote among Councilors. Hierarchs may be challenged to the Duel Arcane for their seat, but only by other Councilors; if defeated, the Councilor is elevated, while the Hierarch becomes a Councilor.

The Hierarch is empowered to appoint an Interfector, Sentinels, Heralds, Scribes and other administrative offices. The Hierarch is responsible for the assignment of unclaimed Hallows – a rare occurrence, except when Hallows are seized from Seers or Banishers. This is considered an incentive for the Hierarch to vigorously pursue the Pentacle’s enemies, as trading Hallows is a source of great political power. (Claimed Hallows may only be stripped from their claimants by a majority vote of the Consilium.)

The Hierarch and each Councilor may appoint a Provost to carry out their will in the Awakened world and, if necessary, to serve in their stead. As the Provost is intended to be an extension of the Councilor’s will, there are no requirements or prerequisites to meet; any willworker in good standing may be selected. That said, if a Councilor is prone to missing meetings, it is considered in poor taste to have their Path’s chair continually filled by a Provost of a different Path.

HIERARCH
Rattenbury – An Obrimos Silver Ladder; personable, but seen as fusty and conservative. He tends to defer to the Guardians of the Veil in security matters, which has lent their faction increasing influence in recent years and let to friction, especially with the Mysterium and the Free Council.

COUNCILORS
Sacerdote – An Acanthus, head of the Guardians of the Veil in Vancouver and a Votary of the Ordained who has designated the city itself as his “charge,” and defends it from what he sees as the indiscretions of the Awakened and their enemies with conviction and zeal.

Khatsalano – A Moros Adamantine Arrow and member of the Squamish Nation. Citing age and the demands of his work, he also tends to send his Provost in his stead.

Minerva – Thyrsus councilor of the Mysterium. A round, middle-aged woman with owl-like glasses. She believes in the Mysterium’s mission and often clashes with other Councilors as they try to keep a lid on what they see as dangerous experimentation.

Janis – The Mastigos councilor of the Free Council, Janis is the youngest councilor by far but also powerful in the Mysteries, having Awakened during a traumatic event in her teens. A firebrand speaker, she sees herself as the voice of Vancouver’s dispossessed and indigent Mages and has often been a lightning rod for the ongoing controversies sparking between the Guardians and their Adamantine Arrow allies and the Mysterium.

PROVOSTS (one per Hierarch and Councilor):RATTENBURY: Montesquieu – A Mastigos of the Silver Ladder and rising star of the order. He cultivates the appearance of a diffident, disinterested fop, but uses his position as owner/operator of Chemical Wedding to network effortlessly with the various factions of Awakened across the city.

SACERDOTE: Jones – A Mastigos of the Guardians, Jones is a practitioner of the Shadowman legacy: masters of using clothing, body language, and voice to make themselves unsettling yet unmemorable, the archetypal Men in Black. Never seen without a black business suit and dark glasses, Jones’s persona is clipped and efficient.

KHATSALANO: Traceur – An Obrimos Adamantine Arrow and an Afro-Canadian Special Forces veteran who served in the first Gulf War, Traceur looks considerably younger than his forty-six years, aided by a religious regimen of diet and exercise. Originally of the Montreal Consilium, he arrived in Vancouver roughly ten years ago after being divorced by his Sleeper wife. Like many Arrows, he is serious, but has the personable reputation that his sponsor lacks. Some suggest that Khatsalano appointed Traceur specifically to get him on his side and short-circuit potential competition.

MINERVA: Sterling – A hacker and information specialist, but personally unprepossessing, the Obrimos mystagogue Sterling is generally taken to be Minerva’s assistant and note-taker more than an independent force in his own right.

JANIS: Impresario – A Mastigos of the Free Council, Impresario is a content developer at Lost Island Pictures, producers of the “Nightfall” TV series. Where Janis is seen by some as strident and militant, Impresario is a spin doctor, a massager and finesser.

INTERFECTOR
Harpocrates – A Moros Guardian of the Veil who heavily plays up the Death aspect of his Path; he is intelligent and scholarly but even other Guardians remark upon his flattened affect and fatalistic outlook, and his appointment to the Interfector post has not livened his outlook.

HERALDS
Finn – A Thyrsus of the Mysterium, Finn is a dreadlocked bike messenger and bassist for a folk-punk fusion band and has served, on occasion, as unofficial ambassador to Vancouver’s itinerant Lost. He’s considered pleasant but unambitious and was elevated to Herald not out of any ambition but because in the course of his mundane job he has grown to understand the geography of the city better than almost anyone else and can be relied on to relay messages quickly and discreetly without the crutch of magic.

Tia – A Moros of the Silver Ladder and member of the Haida Nation of northern BC; she serves them as an activist lawyer and financier, and since her Awakening has taken it upon herself to speak to the ghosts of her ancestors to chronicle her people’s history before it disappears. Her Shadow Name is the Haida goddess of death.

Valentina (Jessica Price) – the sought-after star of cable’s Nightfall, a tawdry but hugely-popular premium-channel soap opera about vampires, werewolves, and the often-topless young reporter whom they alternately love and menace on a weekly basis. Jessica was a Maxim cover girl and rising star in independent film and cable TV when she Awakened to the Path of the Lunargent Thorn. Her charisma and media connections made her a hit with Vancouver’s Free Council and she opted to use her fame to occlude sympathetic magic rather than dropping off the face of the earth completely. At Janis’ urging, Rattenbury bestowed a Heraldship to take advantage of Valentina’s connections and globe-trotting career – the perfect cover for a messenger or ambassador.

Volcker – An Acanthus of the Silver Ladder, Volker serves as the Consilium’s Herald to the hallways of financial power in Vancouver; rumor has it that his position in his Sleeping life is as a banking executive or provincial regulator. His Shadow Name refers to the former chairman of the United States Federal Reserve.

SCRIBE
Pitt – a Moros of the Silver Ladder and a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, not even Awakening to a world of power and magic has kept Pitt from doing paperwork on behalf of his teachers.

SENTINELS
Carson – a Thyrsus Adamantine Arrow and transplant from rural Alberta who likes to affect an urban cowboy persona. An adept of Spirit, he considers himself a “spirit wrangler” and focuses on keeping Vancouver’s Twilight realm from getting out of hand.

Lefors – a Mastigos Guardian of the Veil. A movie buff, he named himself after the implacable lawman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rather than the considerably less impressive real-life Joe Lefors. As an adept of Mind, Lefors tends to partner with Carson quite often, as their Arcana complement one another.

Donatella – an Acanthus of the Free Council and former art historian who tends to assist in the investigative rather than the physical side of things.

Horatius – an Obrimos Adamantine Arrow, Horatius Awakened later in life after a persona trauma. Previously very “ordinary,” in his own words, Horatius dived into the Arrow’s life of service with zeal and now lives a solitary existence of almost monastic dedication to service.

Friday – a Moros of the Adamantine Arrow and an observant Polish Jew who specializes in pursuing supernatural killers, especially those who prey on Sleepers.

Rook – a Moros of the Guardians of the Veil and Nigerian-Canadian officer of the RCMP who specializes in missing persons cases. She has a reputation for being somewhat more salty and down-to-earth than the stereotypical Guardian.